OF HARTING. 357 



any sound whatever appreciable by the human ear. 

 Other entomologists go so far as to express a doubt 

 that the ticking of the true death-watch is in any way 

 unconnected with the action of the mandibles of the 

 insect while the latter is engaged in gnawing the wood, 

 this, as we have shown in our notice of Anobium, is 

 certainly an error. Anobium tesselatum is the only 

 bond fide table-rapper we believe in, and he is not at 

 all unwilling, under favourable conditions, to give an 

 instructive stance unassisted by any " medium," but the 

 ticking which we have always ascribed to A tropos is of 

 quite a different character from that of Anobium. It is 

 slower, not so loud, more regular, and more uniformly 

 continuous ; we have often heard it at night in a room 

 hung with paper on canvas several minutes conse- 

 cutively without a break, and found the insect there at 

 the same time, but we have never seen it in the act of 

 ticking. On the other hand a contributor to " Science 

 Gossip" (Vol. III., p. 29) asserts that he has actually 

 detected an individual of this species, in a honeycomb 

 in his possession, repeatedly striking its head against 

 the wall of the cell in which it had taken up its lodg- 

 ing, and that the noise thus produced was " as loud as 

 the ticking of an ordinary watch." Although this 

 evidence, given on the authority of a careful observer 

 (who used a lens on the occasion), might be deemed 

 conclusive, it does not appear to have set the question 

 at rest, and probably nothing that we could advance 

 pro or con would have any weight in the matter, still 

 we venture to suggest that, as the mandibles of Atropos 

 are capable of cutting the substance of dried insects 

 and plants, the same organs might possibly produce a 

 noise when struck against a sonorous substance. 



There are several species of other genera belonging 

 to this family, all very minute insects, which we have 

 found on fragments of dead wood under the beech 

 trees, on old wooden fences, and in situations similar 

 to those frequented by Atropos. 



